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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27594475">Sometimes even bullies need a family</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Istar/pseuds/Istar'>Istar</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dudley Dursley's maybe not so normal world. [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Good Dudley Dursley, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Redeemed Dudley Dursley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:00:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,056</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27594475</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Istar/pseuds/Istar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This morning I woke up thinking “Dudley Dursley needs a fucking redemption arc”, so I am now writing a redemption arc for a character I never liked...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dudley Dursley's maybe not so normal world. [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017267</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sometimes even bullies need a family</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi hi, this is my first English Fanfiction and also my first Harry Potter Fanfiction.<br/>I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes and all the times I use the wrong words. I'm not a native speaker and have been living abroad in a country were cookies and biscuits are not two different words for the same thing, but two completely different things.<br/>Also, I'm thinking about a second part, so let me know what you think.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Dudley Dursley turned nineteen and moved into his own flat to get rid of his mother’s clutches, he finally started to see how wrong and hateful his parents had been. Actually, it had started when he was fifteen and Harry had saved him from the Dementors. That day he had started to realise that his cousin, whom his parents still called a freak whenever Dudley dared to bring him up once a year, was the one who literally saved his soul and had stared to slowly turn from all the bullying he had enjoyed so much before. It took a lot of time and he needed to unlearn a lot of things before he could actually see how twisted his parent’s minds were and how wrong all the morals were that his parents and Smeltings had taught him.<br/>
Now, a few weeks later sitting on the white leather couch his mother had furnished her “Dadas' first appartement – oh look how grown up and good looking he is” with, he had already come to realise that even though he had already learned a lot, he still wasn’t at the end of his journey.<br/>
After two years of absolutely no contact to his cousin, not even knowing if he was still alive, Dudley realised that he kind of missed him. He wanted to reconnect or if Harry didn’t want to, he at least wanted to say sorry. Dudley felt guilty. Guilty for all the stuff he had said over the years, guilty for all the times he had punched the already underfed and neglected boy and guilty for all the times he called him a freak and more.<br/>
At first, he didn’t know where to start. He didn’t have an address, didn’t know where this mysterious “Hogwarts” was, he didn’t even have a bloody owl which wizards obviously used to ride letters.<br/>
So when his parents went for a in their opinion well earned holiday on a cruise ship, he took his key and went to take a look around their house, to see if he could find any left evidence of where his cousin might be. After Harry has left shortly before his seventeenth birthday the Dursleys had closed the door to his old “poisoned” room and never opened it again.<br/>
Dudley had no idea where the key was, but he knew how to open a door without having one after he had already forgotten the keys to his appartement several times.<br/>
The room was completely deserted. On some level Dudley had always known that Harry had little to no own possessions, but the fact that nothing was left except from Dudley’s broken toys made it even more real. Harry couldn’t have taken a lot of things fleeing in such a rush. Dudley’s heart hurt thinking about it.<br/>
He still looked through the room but couldn’t find a single thing. Sad and miserably he turned to leave the room, when a quaking part of the floor made him stop. He took a step back and looked at the noisy piece of wood. It didn’t quiet fit in with the rest. He tried to pull it out with just his fingers, but couldn’t really get a grip on it. Excited and hopeful he pondered down the stairs, running into the kitchen to grasp a knife to try it again. At first the wood resisted but finally broke free. There was a huge gap under the wood. Big enough to fit several books. It was almost empty except from a few papers. Dudley pulled them out and sat down on the shabby and dusty bed to read through them. The first few almost looked like a normal essay if they hadn’t been about trolls but two at the bottom of the stack were letters.<br/>
“Harry”, one said, “if you need anything just call me. – Hermione”, and underneath was a phone number. Dudley’s heart ponded excited and he ran down to grasp his parent’s phone to call the given number. After he picked up the phone, he realised that he had absolutely no idea what to say. It didn’t matter as no one answered the phone anyways.<br/>
The calling code told him that the number was from north London, so Dudley went to purchase a phone book from five years back. It took him three weeks. Three weeks with evenings spent reading through a phone book to find the right name to the number he had.<br/>
He now had the address of Doctor Marie and William Granger, living in 8 Gardnor Road in Hampstead, London.<br/>
So on a rainy Saturday morning in late November, Dudley took his car to drive from Bristol to Hampton. He had tried to call once again, but no one had answered. The same thing now happened to him when he knocked on the door. No voices, no steps and no one opened the door to let him in. He turned around his own axis. How hadn’t he seen before that there was no car on the driveway, nothing in the carport, it seemed quite deserted. He gripped the window sill to his left to steady himself while he tried to look through the window.<br/>
The house was empty. Not empty in a “no people inside”-way but a “we moved and haven’t found a new owner yet”- way even thought there was no sign along the road.<br/>
Dudley sat down on the steps heavily. He clapped his hands over his face to hide the tears running down his cheeks. The Grangers had been his last connection to his lost cousin and now even this last bit of hope was lost.<br/>
“Hey there young man”, a voice suddenly said, startling him in his misery, “why so sad on this beautiful Saturday morning?”<br/>
Dudley had no idea what to say, so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.<br/>
“It’s raining.”<br/>
“That it is, but it’s still beautiful. Now tell me, why are you crying on an empty house’s doorstep, maybe I can solve that problem with you.”<br/>
Dudley thought about his answer for a moment before he decided that if she already knew that the house was empty, she might know what happened to the habitants.<br/>
“I’m looking for my cousin. We lost contact over two years ago and I’ve been trying to find him for a while now. I know that he was friends with Miss Granger, so I looked up her address and ended up here. But they obviously don’t live here any longer, so it seems like I lost my last way of finding him.”<br/>
The old woman, who belonged to the voice that had spoken to him cooked her head.<br/>
“They moved”, she said, “the Grangers, they moved to Australia two years back. It was very sudden and they left without any real explanation except that they always wanted to.”<br/>
“Australia?!”, Dudley exclaimed. It seemed like it got more hopeless the more he found out. How should he find someone in Australia?<br/>
“Na, only the adults. Hermione stayed at her boarding school and now moved in with her boyfriend. I’ve got her address, come on I’ll get it for you.”<br/>
Dudley stared at her – it seemed like he was doing a lot of staring lately – and then went to follow. Could it really be that easy? It almost seemed unreal.<br/>
Half an hour later he hadn’t only gotten the address but also a batch of cookies for himself and another one for Hermione and “her lovely but strange young man”.<br/>
Armed with cookies and a lot of hope, Dudley got back in his car to drive to Ottery St Catchpole in Devon. He was pretty sure that he could make it in four hours and therefore arrive one and a half hours before dinnertime. Hermione’s boyfriend’s family didn’t have a phone so he again couldn’t call before driving there. It stared to unnerve him, having been raised to believe that it was improper to simply come by.<br/>
The moment he entered Ottery St Catchpole it started. The closer he got to his destination he more wanted to turn around and leave. He felt like he didn’t belong there, but he had a place to be if he ever wanted to find his cousin.<br/>
When he turned right at a very lonely crossing – he hadn’t seen another car in nearly fifteen minutes – he saw an old windswept wooden sign saying “The Burrow - follow the road for three more miles or if you are arriving by broom keep north-west”. Dudley had no idea what “The Burrow” was, but given that the sign say said “if you are arriving by broom” he was pretty sure that it was a wizard thing. It probably belonged to wherever he wanted to go considering that his navigation system also told him to go straight for three more miles.<br/>
Dudley wasn’t even staring, he was gaping. Open mouthed. He now understood what “The Burrow” was. The house he was standing in front of really looked like a burrow. It looked so much like fairy tale wizard house that Dudley wasn’t sure how a whole community managed to stay hidden.<br/>
Recovering from his shock Dudley walked up to the door and knocked without knowing what would happen for a second time today. He could hear voices from inside which obviously meant that at least this house was lived in. After a few seconds the door opened and revealed a young woman around Dudley’s age with flaming red hair.<br/>
“Hi, how can-”, she said before she stopped herself and turned around with her flaming hair flying around her head.<br/>
“Mom, there is a Muggle at the door.”<br/>
“A Muggle?”, a voice from inside the house called, “Arthur go and check the wards and take Bill with you maybe they have been tampered with.”<br/>
“Ahm I’m sorry”, Dudley started, “I don’t want to cause any inconvenience, but I’m looking for Hermione Granger and I have been told that she lives here.”<br/>
“Oh”, she turned around again, now really looking at Dudley, “how do you know her?”<br/>
“I don’t. But I am looking for someone and the only connection I have is the name Hermione Granger.”<br/>
She eyed him for what felt like an eternity before she turned around and hollered again: “Oi Mione, there is someone at the door who wants to talk to you.”<br/>
“Hu? Who is it?”, hurried steps came down the stairs.<br/>
The woman turned around and raised an eyebrow. It seemed like this was her way of asking him for his name. Dudley cleared his throat.<br/>
“Dudley, my name is Dudley.”<br/>
“He says his name is Dudley.”<br/>
“Unusual name, but I don’t know any Dudleys.”<br/>
“Well, he is a Muggle, so no one I would now either.”<br/>
Dudley almost felt a little bit stupid with the two girls one he couldn’t even see yet talking about him. He really wished the step he was standing on would vanish so that he could disappear into the ground.<br/>
The woman that had come down the stairs while he was staring at the floor was gorgeous maybe he even found her more gorgeous because his parents would disapprove of her. She had wild frizzly hair and was dark skinned. Her eyes shone bright and intelligent and she had a no-nonsense aura around her. But the most beautiful thing was how the two women were now standing right next to each other obviously being very protective of and caring deeply about each other. After all the racism Dudley had experienced at home, towards Harry and towards random people on the street and in TV it almost felt heeling seeing two people so deeply connected without letting any animosity get in between them. It still felt awkward when they both turned to look at Dudley though.<br/>
“Ahm hi”, Dudley rouse his hand.<br/>
“Should I know you? Cause if I should I have to say that I’m sorry but I have no idea who you are.”<br/>
“No, you don’t. I am looking for someone and the only thing had to find him was your name and phone number. So I went to your old house but it was completely empty. Your neighbour gave me this address.”<br/>
Hermione looked a little bit less suspicious now, so he continued.<br/>
“I am looking for Harry Potter, he is my cousin and last time I saw him he left to fight a war. I just want to know if he is alive and if he is, I want to apologize and just…”, he trailed of, tears in his eyes for a second time today.<br/>
“You are Dudley Dursley.”, Hermione looked at his stunned, the other woman just gaped.<br/>
“I don’t want to deal with this, I really don’t.”, murmured the dark haired one before she turned around to holler up the stairs once again.<br/>
“Ronald tell your brothers to let Harry go. Here is someone who wants to talk to him.”<br/>
“I’m sorry Mione, that won’t work.”<br/>
“Why?”<br/>
“Fred and George turned him into a canary he is currently sitting an my shoul- hey Harry don’t shit on me!”<br/>
Hermione just looked up the stairs, about to go ballistic, while the one on fire just slumped on the ground, giggling hysterically.<br/>
Dudley was let into a living room which was crammed with way too many misfitting sofas. It still felt way more homy than his own childhood home has ever felt like. Hermione and the woman, who had now introduced herself as Ginny, sat down on one of the sofas, Dudley on the one facing the two of them. It still felt a little bit awkward since none of them knew what to say, but it now had a kind of cosy atmosphere. When a large man entered, as red haired as Ginny, so Dudley assumed that he was her brother, Hermione pulled him down on the sofa next to herself. He was holding a little yellow bird with incredibly green eyes in between his hands, which Dudley assumed was Harry.<br/>
“Don’t let Draco see him like this he is going to murder them”, Hermione hissed.<br/>
“How did he even get like this? What have they done this time?”<br/>
“He ate a sweet he found in his pocket.”<br/>
“Beginners mistake.”, Ginny grinned.<br/>
“Please don’t tell me you helped them.”<br/>
“Maybe.”<br/>
At Hermione’s angry glare she slumped a little bit further down into the sofa, but didn’t lose his grin.<br/>
“He had it coming. This morning at the breakfast table he told everyone that he hadn’t been pranked in weeks, so Fred, George and I thought-“<br/>
“That it would be nice to turn him into a canary.”<br/>
“Actually no, we wanted to colour his hair into yellow feathers, but as you can see, he decided to go the whole way.”<br/>
The dark-skinned girl looked like she still wanted to say something, but in this moment a cloud of yellow smoke started to rise from Ron’s hand and a loud bang sounded. Suddenly Ron had a very dishevelled, only half clothed Harry Potter sitting on his hands and legs.<br/>
“Wow Ginny”, he said, “that was awesome.”<br/>
At Hermione’s glare he retreated looking a little bit afraid and way less enthusiastic than before.<br/>
“It was not?”<br/>
“You knew someone put it into your pocket and you still ate it, why would you do such a stupid thing?”<br/>
“I – Dudley?!”, while trying to avoid Hermione Harry thrown looks through the whole living room which of course wasn’t that big, given that it had never been. While doing so his eyes had landed on Dudley who had been listening to the exchange with a gaping mouth. Apparently, it wasn’t that uncommon that people got turned into animals, which was new to him.<br/>
“What are you doing here?”<br/>
Dudley needed a few seconds to figure out that Harry was talking to him. He had been so caught up in the exchange that he didn’t realise that he now had his cousin’s attention.<br/>
“I came to see if you were still alive.”, he whispered, voice suddenly thick and clogged.<br/>
“I also came to apologise for all the things I have done and said to you over the years. I have been a dick and a bully. I’ve also been incredibly racist and always let my parents influence my decisions and action when I should have stood up for you. I am sorry for everything I have done and I know that I am not even allowed to hope that you will accept my apology. But over the last few months I’ve come to realise how much I admire how you stood up to my parents even though you knew that it would only make your living situation worse. If you accept my apology, I would love to have you back in my live and at the same time to start completely anew. I’ve missed you so much.”<br/>
During his little speech tears had stared to roll down his cheeks again and his voice had grown more and more quiet.<br/>
For a few moments it was quiet. Not a single thing could be heard before Harry suddenly got up.<br/>
Dudley thought he would leave and his heart broke and he retreated back into his shell, but the only thing his cousin did was to cross the room, sit down next to him, sling his arms around him and hug him firm and for a long time.<br/>
“I missed you to Dadas.”</p><p>Dudley stayed for Dinner. It was loud, it was dirty – a lot of food was flying over the table – and most important; it was amazing. Dudley could really see how much all of this people loved each other and his heart stared bleeding a little bit at the thought of what Harry and him could have had, if he and his family hadn’t been so fucking awful. But the moment a piece of potato, thrown by Fred, found the way into his face he knew, that with Harry’s forgiveness he had finally found a piece of real family he had never known before and by getting to now the Weasley’s he had gained even more.<br/>
It didn’t even took a week until an owl too flew through his open kitchen window with an invite to a Sunday roast at The Burrow.</p>
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